This invention relates generally to RFID tag utilization, and more specifically, to methods and systems for RFID tag read verification.
RFID tags and readers have been utilized in a multitude of applications. In a typical application, once an RFID reader-antennae assembly has read a single or many RFID tags, it keeps a record of those reads (e.g., tag number, date and time, the tag specification, and the specific antenna that made the read); however, the reader can only store the data until the unit is shut down. RFID readers have the capability of reading hundreds of RFID tags per second. As the tags are read, a record is kept of each read. For the data to be retained, it has to be output to an external system prior to the system being powered down or turned off.
A problem with the above described process is that, as the number of unique tags read grows beyond a dozen or two, it is not possible to very quickly identify which tags were read, and which tags were not read, to verify the accuracy of RFID tagging and reading processes. More specifically, known RFID tag and reader systems are not believed to have a capability to compare imported (read) data with known RFID tag identifiers, locations, and control data (e.g., (tagged items data)).
To date, in order to verify which RFID tags incorporated within a system were read, and not read, copious hand-written notes have been utilized. The notes, along with the text string output of the records stored in the RFID tag reader, are then manually deciphered to determine if the desired reads took place. Such manually driven processes are known to be time-extensive and prone to errors.